Joel Connelly: A Political Memorial

Karen Marchioro would have enjoyed yesterday’s memorial mass at Bellevue’s Sacred Heart Church, and the buzz of political types trading rumors and telling stories afterward at a reception.

The longtime chairwoman (1981-92) of the state Democratic Party, who was a powerhouse at the Democratic National Committee until days before her death, designed the observance as her six-year battle with cancer neared an end.

“She wasn’t about the service centering on her,” said Fr. William Heric of Eastside Catholic High School, who worked with Marchioro.

What Marchioro didn’t count on was that events would give the gatherings food for conversation.

A longtime Republican rival, GOP state chairman(cq) and former U.S. Rep. Jennifer Dunn, died suddenly five days after the passing of Marchioro. A display of newspaper clips at the reception featured a magazine cover of Marchioro and Dunn.

State Sen. Rodney Tom yesterday withdrew as a Democratic candidate for Congress in the 8th District, leaving a clear field for “netroots” champion Darcy Burner.

And Michigan moved up the date of its presidential primary. As co-chairman of the Democratic National Committee’s credentials panel, Marchioro would have been handed a hot potato had she lived.

The crowd at Sacred Heart included Gov. Chris Gregoire, ex-Gov. Mike Lowry, three of Marchioro’s successors as Democratic State Chair, Republican pundit John Carlson, and a bevvy of friends who first came to know Marchioro long ago in the 1972 McGovern presidential campaign.

The lady was remembered as a fighter, first draw into politics by her opposition to the Vietnam War.

Marchioro, a mother of seven and spouse of a UW medical school professor, called King County Democratic Headquarters to ask where her precinct caucus was to be held. She was told there would be no caucus in her precinct.

“Karen replied that she came from Illinois, and that at least you could vote even if they did not count it,” Paul Berendt, her successor as Democratic Chairman, remembered in a tribute.

Marchioro was also an early, passionate foe of the Iraq War and backer of the anti-war insurgency of Howard Dean in 2004.

During a visit in Marchioro’s last days, Heric recalled, “She perked up quite a bit sharing her editoral view about the administration in Washington, D.C.”

The memorial mass featured a number of scripture readings that should be read by political consultants in this era of negative, take-on-prisoners Karl Rove-style campaigns.

“Do not return evil for evil, or insult for insult,” went a passage from Peter Ch. 3 8-12.

And, in a famous passage from the St. Matthew Gospel, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.”

Marchioro was 73 at the time of her death.

The photo display showed her as a newly minted nurse, as a still-youthful 1972 candidate for Democratic National Committeewoman, and as a powerful political figure who was an early champion of Bill Clinton’s presidential ambitions.

The early pictures showed Marchioro with her first husband, Prof. Thomas Marchioro, who died in the mid-1990’s. The later shots featured party executive director and sidekick Jeff Smith, who Marchioro married in 1999.

Democrats have won six straight gubernatorial elections, a winning streak that began with three consecutive victories while Marchioro was chairman.

Hence, the joke was told of a Democratic National committee session. A new state chairman observed that, where he came from, the governor selects who will chair the state party.

A delegate from this state said in response: “I come from Washington, where the state chair chooses the governor.

Gregoire ended the memorial mass by presenting the Marchioro family with a folded Washington State flag.